Jeremy Hunt: another referendum would be “betrayal”

In response to comments by Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer regarding the need for a confirmatory vote on any Brexit deal, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said that another referendum would be a “betrayal” of the 2016 Brexit vote.

Meanwhile, President of the European Council Donald Tusk said on Tuesday that the results of another referendum “would certainly be different” because the UK have had a “real debate about the consequences of Brexit.”

Elsewhere, Jeremy Hunt said that the UK should “consider [a] defence spending boost.”

He said, “We simply do not know what the balance of power in the world will be in 25 years’ time,” adding, “So for these and other reasons I believe it is time for the next Strategic Defence and Security Review to ask whether, over the coming decade, we should decisively increase the proportion of GDP we devote to defence.”

Meanwhile, Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has confirmed that he will stand again as a Parliamentary candidate in the next general election.

In a piece for Conservative Home, Open Europe’s Henry Newman argues that the collapse of the Conservative vote for European elections “coincided not with the advent of the Prime Minister’s deal, but with the failure to deliver Brexit on March 29.”

He concludes, “Ninety per cent of Tory MPs backed the Withdrawal Agreement the last time it was put to Parliament. If the rest could be persuaded to do so too, Brexit could be secured, and the Party could move on to deciding which leader should take forward the next phase of the negotiations.”

Elsewhere, writing for the LSE EUROPP Blog, Open Europe’s Zoe Alipranti offers an overview of the Greek political landscape ahead of the European elections. She argues, “Greece is no longer reeling from divisions over Europe, but swathes of the population hit by austerity are still largely dissatisfied with many angles of the European project.

Martin Banks is a highly qualified journalist with many years experience of working within the EU institutions. He is an occasional, and highly valued, contributor to EU today, writing on a wide variety of issues.